An alleged white nationalist group has reportedly published photographs of thousands of Yeshiva University faculty members and students.
By: Antoine DuBlaine
According to reports, the trove of pictures was posted on the Vanguard News Network Forum. The post was said to be an attempt to ridicule the appearance of religious Jews.
“The thread first appeared on June 3rd, 2018, and on June 27th, 2018, the first Yeshiva University students are posted, according to the YU Observer student newspaper. The most recent post of YU students was on Aug. 29,” according to a report published by Vos Iz Neias. Among them are photographs of Yeshiva University high school students, too, drawn from the school’s online site and publications. Reports have been filed with police.
“Those photos are part of a much larger collection of images and commentary that includes anti-Semitic and racist language,” Josh Joseph, senior vice president of YU said in a statement on Friday. “The content of the online forum targeting members of our community is appalling and offensive. Targeting individuals on the basis of their religion, ethnicity or race is inexcusable. While this situation is obviously disturbing, our Security team has investigated and found no direct threat to the individuals appearing in the photos or to Yeshiva University.”
“Brandeis University, which has Jewish roots, informed its students and staff last week that photos of some of its students and faculty members are posted to the same thread. The university said in a letter addressed to the campus community that it does not believe that there is a threat to campus safety or to the people in the photos,” Vos Iz Neias reported.
Thus far, 2019 has seen “a rise of domestic terror incidents across the country, the majority of them directly attributable to violent white supremacy, as FBI director Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee in July,” reported the United Kingdom’s Independent. “A string of mass shootings in recent years involved young white gunmen posting racist and anti-immigrant manifestos online before storming their target sites, from a historically black church in Charleston, North Carolina, to a Walmart in the diverse border city of El Paso, Texas. In statements shortly after the latest mass shootings seemingly driven by white supremacist violence, Donald Trump focused on mental health and video games as primary reasons for the apparent spike in deadly violence sparked by extremism. But researchers who are now exploring what leads someone – particularly young people – to become radicalized into white supremacist ideology say those reasons are just part of a complex issue.”
